A small machining firm in Gloucester wins a contract from a big aerospace customer and finds, on page forty of the terms, a clause assigning to the customer every improvement, drawing and process developed during the work. Whether to sign it, and what to carve out, is the sort of question intellectual property solicitors in Gloucester deal with more often than glamorous trade mark battles, because the county's engineering economy is built on suppliers to larger companies, whose know-how is often the only thing they truly own.
The rest of the county's intellectual property is varied. The cyber security businesses around Cheltenham run on software copyright, trade secrets and licences, and their founders need confidentiality agreements before they talk to investors. Food and drink producers in the Vale and the Cotswolds trade on names and packaging, and need to know what can be registered and what, being a place name or a description, cannot. The University of Gloucestershire sends out designers, photographers and media graduates who must learn who owns the work they do for clients, and the city's rugby club, festivals and heritage attractions depend on their brands and merchandise.
A Gloucester IP solicitor files trade mark and design applications at the UK Intellectual Property Office, drafts licences, assignments and non-disclosure agreements, reviews the IP clauses in supply contracts, and sends the letter before action when a product or name is copied. Patent drafting is done with a patent attorney. Disputes that cannot be settled go to the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, where recoverable costs are capped and damages limited to £500,000, or to the Business and Property Courts in Bristol or Birmingham.
Expect fixed fees for applications and standard agreements and hourly rates for disputes.
The intellectual property firms serving Gloucester appear below, verified first. See what intellectual property law is, the general IP solicitors page, and for contracts and company matters the business law solicitors in Gloucester page.
